Carlisle: Nothing Landis did could spoil our fun

Racers make their way down Highway 23 just before Westlake Boulevard during Sunday’s final stage.

Rob Varela / Star staff

Floyd Landis is just a big old party pooper.

The Amgen Tour of California rolled through the Conejo Valley on Sunday, giving Ventura County the opportunity to host the event's prestigious final stage.

Landis, who won the Tour de France in 2006, only to be stripped of the title because of doping charges, tried his best to upstage the Tour of California. He tried to discredit his sport and everyone in it he could. But it just didn't work.

We still had a great time watching the Tour of California. Riders still loved being in it. It's still a work in progress; perhaps it still has a few bugs to work out, but the Tour has become one of the most successful annual sporting events in California. And nothing Landis said was going to change that.

After steadfastly maintaining his innocence for four years and mounting a vigorous and costly defense, Landis decided to come clean, as it were, by admitting he was dirty. While still denying he had used synthetic testosterone, Landis did admit he had used human growth hormone. And not only that, he tried to drag down nearly every well-known name in American cycling.

Landis accused Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer, David Zabriskie and George Hincapie of doping as well.

The accusation came just before the Tour of California's stage from Visalia to Bakersfield. That's never been a very fun stretch of road for me and it sure wasn't for the Tour last Thursday. First, Armstrong had to call an impromptu news conference to deny Landis' allegations. Then, a few miles into the stage, Armstrong crashed and had to drop out of the event.

The Tour had had its credibility attacked and its No. 1 attraction taken out within a matter of hours.

In the end, it was like an ugly scene in a restaurant, something that was best left ignored.

Leipheimer was asked if he had anything to say in response to Landis' tantrum.

"I've thought about it, but I don't," he said. "I can't begin to understand what's going through his mind, but it doesn't make sense to me. I don't think it's worth trying to reason with him."

Doping suspicions may forever hang over cycling — especially if the French have anything to say about it — but Leipheimer, who had won the last three Tours of California before Michael Rogers' victory Sunday, said his sport has done a commendable job of cleaning itself up.

"I really believe cycling is much, much cleaner than in the past," Leipheimer said. "It's fair and it's clean."

The thousands who lined Sunday's route through Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village and Agoura Hills were certainly much more likely to believe Leipheimer than Landis.

It was a glorious day, a day that gave the area a rare sense of community, joy and pride.

Floyd Landis couldn't touch any of that.

* * *

Now, before I saddle up on my red tricycle and ride off into the sunset, here are a few notable items from the week just past:

- Frankly, I truly think cycling would be taken up by a lot more people if the costume didn't consist of so much — or so little — spandex. It looks good on the pros; the rest of us, not so much.

- The final stage, which lapped four times around Mulholland Highway, proved to be a challenging one.

"I did not expect this stage to be so hard," Rogers said. "I do not think anyone did. The last stage is not always a walk in the park, but it's usually not like this either."

- Challenging? Hmm. I'll have to drive it sometime.

- The story on the Cavaliers firing coach Mike Brown moved on the wire at 4:44 a.m. Cleveland time Monday, a couple of hours after ESPN had first reported it.

- That's a middle-of-the-night move that ranks right up there with the Colts moving out of Baltimore or the Mets firing Willie Randolph.

- In his pink sport coat and flower-print tie Sunday night, sideline reporter Craig Sager looked more like he was working for FTD than TNT.

- I took some grief last week from horse racing people saying I didn't know what I was talking about in my grim assessment of the sport in general and the Triple Crown specifically. But it is interesting to note that Hollywood Park canceled Wednesday's card because of a limited number of entries. The track is going to take the races that were full for Wednesday and combine them with Thursday's card. Hollypark is also planning to start having free admission on Thursdays starting this week.

- He has a record of 332-287, but I've always thought Doug Collins — who was hired Friday to coach the Philadelphia 76ers — had a better record as a TV analyst. You never lose in that job.

- Heard on Saturday's Padres-Mariners game on XM Radio: "This trip to the mound is brought to you by "

- What's next? "That spit of tobacco juice is sponsored by "

- Maybe I'm just lazy, but if I was an NFL player, I'd probably never go to voluntary organized team activities.

- Unless they were like, you know, a picnic or something like that.

- Danica Patrick was a little too honest in her comments about her Indy 500 car and her crew. She was right, but too honest.

- TomTom is introducing navigation devices with the voices of NASCAR drivers. I can hear it now: "Come on, gun it! You can outrun that CHP car!" "Get in there tight and draft in back of that semi!" "Go in and pit for four new tires!"

- One thing it'll never tell you to do is make a right turn.

— Jim Carlisle is a columnist for The Star. E-mail address: jcarlisle@VCStar.com. Follow on Twitter at VCSJimCarlisle.